Separation and Determination of Small Quantities of Aluminum in Steel

A method is described for determining small amounts of aluminum (0.01 to 0.3 percent) in stainless and carbon steels. A perchloric-sulfuric acid solution of the steel is electrolyzed in a mercury cathode cell to remove most of the iron, and an extraction with chloroform is made to remove elements such as aluminum, residual iron, and titanium as cupferrates from a solution buffered at pH 3.5. These elements are converted from cupferrates to perchlorates; all except aluminum are then extracted as cupferrates with chloroform from 4 N hydrochloric acid. Aluminum in the acid solution is determined photometrically with aluminon (ammonium aurintricarboxylate) at a wave length of approximately 540 millimicrons. An accuracy of ± 0.005 percent aluminum is indicated.     

A ten year study of medullary carcinoma of the breast

In this large series of patients treated for medullary carcinoma of the breast by radical mastectomy, the over-all five year survival rate was 63.7 per cent and the ten year survival rate, 49.5 per cent. Although survival was adversely affected by axillary lymph node involvement, there was an equal incidence of such involvement, there was an equal incidence of such involvement in tumors less than 4 centimeters compared with those greater than 4 centimeters in size; however, patients with tumors greater than 4 centimeters in size fared poorer categorically than did those with smaller lesions. Women in the premenopausal period had one-third of the cancers and had a significantly better survival rate than did those in the postmenopausal period, despite a similar incidence of axillary lymph node involvement. Medullary carcinoma is among the small group of malignant tumors of the breast that have distinctly better five and ten year survival rates than other more common varieties.     

Applying semantic web technologies to knowledge sharing in aerospace engineering

This paper details an integrated methodology to optimise knowledge reuse and sharing, illustrated with a use case in the aeronautics domain. It uses ontologies as a central modelling strategy for the capture of knowledge from legacy documents via automated means, or directly in systems interfacing with knowledge workers, via user-defined, web-based forms. The domain ontologies used for knowledge capture also guide the retrieval of the knowledge extracted from the data using a semantic search system that provides support for multiple modalities during search. This approach has been applied and evaluated successfully within the aerospace domain, and is currently being extended for use in other domains on an increasingly large scale.     

Composition and functional properties of raw and heat processed velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC. var utilis) flours

Summary The proximate composition and functional properties of raw and heat-processed velvet bean (M ucuna pruriens (L.) DC. var utilis ) flours were studied. The flours were prepared by soaking raw beans for 14 h, boiling for 30 min (heat-processed), manual dehulling, oven-drying (65 °C) and milling. The heat-processed flour contained 6.8% moisture, 24.3% protein, 4.9% fat, 1.3% crude fibre, 3.5% ash and 61.2% carbohydrate. The flour was rich in potassium (125 mg/100 g), zinc (9.8 mg/100 g) and phosphorus (361 mg/100 g). Differences in proximate and mineral composition of raw and heat-processed flours were not significant. The flours showed minimum protein solubility at pH 4.5 and formed reasonably stable emulsions and foams. Compared to raw flour, heat-processed flour had better water and fat absorption capacities, but lower protein solubility, emulsion and foam capacities. The flours have potential for food product development.     

Optimization of process conditions for production of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory peptides from vital wheat gluten using response surface methodology

The degree of hydrolysis (DH) and angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE)-inhibitory activity of vital wheat gluten (VWG) hydrolyzed using Alcalase were investigated using Box-Behnken response surface methodology (RSM). The mean responses were fitted to a second order polynomial to obtain regression equations. The enzyme-substrate ratio and the hydrolysis time increased the DH significantly (p<0.05). The substrate concentration was the only significant linear term leading to an increase in ACE-inhibitory activity. The optimized conditions of a substrate concentration of 5.04%, an enzyme-substrate ratio 5.94%, and a hydrolysis time 30.79 min gave a point prediction of a 12.74% DH and 82.28% ACE-inhibitory activity. Analytical results from confirmatory experiment were a 12.22%±0.5 DH and a 78.93%±1.07 ACE-inhibitory activity. The optimized conditions of the study provide useful information to the functional food and beverage industries to enhance the anti-hypertensive activities of peptides from VWG.     

Technical note: A muscle biopsy technique for stratifying cattle by skeletal muscle metabolic activity

Tissue biopsy metabolic activity, assessed using the oxidation-reduction indicator resazurin, may serve as a proxy to assess energy expenditure associated with maintenance in nongrowing animals or growth rate in growing animals. Herein, we evaluate the repeatability, practicality, and sensitivity of a resazurin-based assay for ranking bovine skeletal muscle biopsies based on metabolic activity. Six yearling Holstein heifers (body weight = 330 ± 11.3 kg) were fed 4 dietary treatments consisting of high or low rumen-degradable starch and fiber arranged factorially in a partially replicated Latin square design. Periods were 18 d, consisting of 3 d for diet transition, 14 d for diet adaptation, and 1 d for sample collection. Semitendinosus biopsies were collected into ice-cold Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (Fisher Scientific, Hampton, NH) from each heifer during each period. Analysis was initiated within an hour of sample collection. To assess tissue metabolic rate, biopsies were transferred to Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium with resazurin and incubated at 37°C. Fluorescence of each sample was read at time 0 and at 15-min intervals for 2 h. Change in fluorescence was representative of skeletal muscle reducing equivalent production. Fluorescent signal strength increased with time and relative rank of treatments did not change with time; accordingly, future studies may compare fluorescence at a single time point. Change in fluorescence at 120 min was used for analysis of the fixed effects of fiber, starch, and animal when accounting for a random effect of period. Samples collected when animals were on a high-ruminally degradable starch diet were more metabolically active than samples collected from animals on low-starch diets. Significant differences in metabolic activity among individual animals were also identified. Average relative fluorescence was correlated with dry matter intake, average daily gain, and feed-to-gain ratio. The relative fluorescence tended to correlate with average daily gain (r = 0.749) and feed-to-gain ratio (r = ?0.783); change in fluorescence did not correlate with dry matter intake. Although evaluated on a small sample size, this technique shows promise as a potential means of ranking animals by growth or feed efficiency. Further work on a larger experimental population is needed to confirm the usefulness of this assay as a consistent and reliable predictor of these important phenotypic parameters.     

Prenatal diagnosis of a fetal intracranial tumor

Cap polyposis is a rare intestinal disease that can be difficult to differentiate from inflammatory bowel disease. When cap polyposis is suspected, it is important to confirm protein loss. A 54-year-old woman who had been treated for ulcerative colitis for 7 years had severe hypoproteinemia. Scintigraphy with Tc-99m-labeled DTPA complexed with human serum albumin showed protein loss from the descending colon. Left hemicolectomy and sigmoid colectomy were performed. Cap polyposis was diagnosed on the basis of histologic findings from an operative specimen. The patient's diarrhea resolved after surgery and her hypoproteinemia improved. Scintigraphy with this label gave information helpful in the diagnosis of cap polyposis.